Thirteen weekends into the college baseball regular season, it’s probably not going to surprise you that Towson is playing yet another private, liberal arts university with a beautiful, historic campus. Apparently you can’t toss a baseball on the east coast without hitting one of those things. This weekend’s opponent, Elon University, is mostly notable for transforming itself from a tiny, religious school into one of the more highly ranked private universities in the southern U.S. They even wrote a book about it.
Their mascot is the Phoenix, which references a 1923 fire that burned much of the campus. It’s a great improvement over their previous mascot, the Fighting Christians, which, even given their proximity to Blue Devils and Demon Deacons, is wildly unimaginative and more than a little awkward. How many times did people have to say things like, “Boy, those Devils really killed the Christians this weekend,” or “How do you think the Christians will do against the Bears?”
Don’t even ask about the Tigers.
Elon has the fourth best record in the Colonial Athletic Association (overall and in-conference), which means Towson has played the top four teams in the CAA in consecutive weekends. That’s a brutal month. On the positive side, the Phoenix have lost three straight and four of their last five. Maybe Towson is catching them at the right time.
Matching their placement by record, Elon is basically the fourth best offense in the conference, though they lead in walks and on-base percentage. On the mound, they rank third in ERA, but lead the CAA in strikeouts. Their three best hitters are junior shortstop Ryne Ogren (.342/.441/.462, 44 RBI), sophomore second baseman Cam Devanney (.312/.434/.472), and senior outfielder Zach Evers (.300/.401/.437, 15 SB).
On the mound, the Tigers will get a major test tonight against sophomore righty Kyle Brnovich. Brnovich (6′ 2″, 190 lbs) leads college baseball with 124 strikeouts in 81.1 innings, leading to a 6-2 record and 1.99 ERA. Considering that Towson strikes out less than any other team in the CAA and Brnovich likes to strike people out, maybe a little extra contact by the Tigers can frustrate him. The other two pitchers scheduled are tough, but tonight is definitely the marquee match-up.
The Watch List
Richie Palacios, SS – .316↓/.463↑/.542↓, 177 AB, 51 R, 8 HR, 16 2B, 30 RBI, 23-24 SB. The Palacios vs. Brnovich face-off will be an especially interesting one to watch. The Tigers shortstop has only struck out 15 times all season, and only five times since April 1st.
Dirk Masters, 2B – .260↓/.381↓/.285↑, 123 AB, 17 R, 3 2B, 8 RBI, 4-4 SB. It’s a bit of a home-coming for Towson’s second baseman, who hails from North Carolina. Masters will look to extend a short, three-game hitting streak.
David Marriggi, P – 3-6, 5.00 ERA↓, 68.1 IP, 37 BB, 59 K. Marriggi will take the mound for the series opener tonight, looking to bounce back from two tough starts that have raised his season ERA nearly a point and a quarter. The senior lefty has struck out exactly four batters in each of his last five starts, so missing a few more bats will be something to look out for.
Michael Adams, P – 3-6, 5.78 ERA↓, 67 IP, 27 BB, 72 K. Adams will start the middle game of the series (Alex Cuas is scheduled for the finale on Sunday), also looking for a bounceback performance. Adams has allowed eight hits in three of his last four starts (and the fourth was the Northeastern game where he gave up six of them in a third of an inning), so he will look to limit contact as well.
More Info
Pitching match-ups, series history, and more can be found here. All three games should be streaming online, I will share links once I confirm them for each game on Twitter.
Musical Finale
This seems appropriate.
